Backlash to the Backlash

Michael Phelps is amazing.

We knew he was. He's already won 6 gold medals and two bronze ones in Atlanta. He had set the goal to get 8 golds at this Olympics. It is an unparalleled achievement and no one thought he could really do it.

I mean it was a nice idea, but the stars would have to align to get 8 gold medals in one Olympics.

NBC pimped the hell out of the idea and drove ratings up. And it was fun to watch him try at first. But all the 'rah ... eight medals ... rah' schtick was getting an little old. Truth is when you spend days screaming at the top of your lungs that, "THIS GUY IS THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER! PAY LOTS OF ATTENTION!" people tend to stop listening and get sick of your jumping up and down hysterically screaming.

But he did it. He lived up to the expectation and hype. He smashed seven world records. He won eight gold medals.

And no matter how sick of him we are, no matter how annoying the NBC coverage is and how the 'rah pay attentions' are now a dull echo we tune out because we've heard it a million times before we need to remember the following:

Michael Phelps just did what no one has ever done before. He has a total of sixteen medals over two Olympics, 14 of them gold. He holds, individually or as a member of a team seven world records and in several cases broke his own best time. And he won eight gold medals in a single Olympics.

So, despite how much I hate the rah-rah coverage and NBC and I've gotten a little annoyed by it, I have to say, Michael Phelps is extraordinary. Wow. Just Wow.